Monday, July 10, 2017

Putin has Transformed Russia into a Gigantic ‘Island of Dr. Moreau,’ Nemets Says

Paul
Goble

Staunton, July 10 – In his 1896
novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau,
H.G. Wells describes how a doctor on a small and isolated island in the Pacific
manages to create “human-like hybrid beings” by doing surgery on animals.
British critics at the same suggested Wells’ book was a commentary on what had
happened in their country over the two preceding decades.

They suggested, Moscow commentator
Aleksandr Nemets says, that Wells was a kind of fictional retelling of what
happened in England after the social upsurge of the 1880s when in his words
“Englishmen were almost converted into people and then again returned to their
‘primitive state’” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5962B4127864B).

Russia over the last 30 years
appears to have moved along the same trajectory.“How often people shouted at the end of the
1980s and the beginning of the 1990s: ‘The former slaves of the Soviet system
are being transformed into free people! Unheard of flourishing is ahead!’ But
in fact, a new herd appeared, actively supported and directed by the
authorities.”

“We now see the final results,”
Nemets says, with polls showing that the share of Russians who oppose Putin and
want change “doesn’t exceed 13-14 percent of the population” and 10 percent of
the total, some 14 million people, including many who would be in the first
category – say they want to leave Russia altogether.

Twenty-five percent of those aged 18
to 25 say they want to leave, eight million of those Russia most needs for
development. But “the rest, both the young and those older support the
FSB-Russian Orthodox Church bloc or even demand that it act “more harshly” than
it has up to now, the commentator continues.

“It is thus easy to make the
conclusion that the quality of the population of the Russian Federation has
fallen sharply and does not correspond at all to the demands of high-technology
modernization of the economy and society.” The Russians have the equipment one
would need but “not the qualified cadres.”

On the other hand, Nemets points out,
“there are cadres and resource for ‘electronic evils’ like trolling and hacker
attacks on Ukraine, Europe and America.”And there is no indication that things are going to get better anytime
soon. “Not a single Russian university” ranks in the top 100 of the world.

“Unfortunately,” he says, “a significant
part of the readers of Kasparov.ru [and other liberal outlets] still maintain
the illusion that ‘a leader will be found, a Navalny or someone else, a bright
new personality, who will take power in the Russian Federation by legal or
other means and everything will turn out well!’”

“Alas, the share
of those who want serious changes in the Russian Federation is not large and is
even contracting,” Nemets says.And that
reduces the chances that Russia will be able to change itself by itself anytime
in the coming years.